BW| Snooping in All the Wrong Places

Business Week weighs in against the Defense Dept.'s $240 million effort to develop a Total Information Awareness system (TIA).

Why, many asked, would the Bush Administration stand behind such an intrusive plan? My question: Why ask why?

The furor over TIA is déjà vu all over again. DARPA's project is just one of a series of salvos in the Bushies' war on terrorism that promise security but lay waste to personal privacy. Some antiprivacy proposals have sailed through. The U.S. Patriot Act, which significantly expanded law-enforcement agencies' surveillance and investigative powers, and did so with few checks and balances, passed the Senate 99-1. (Only Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) courageously stood against the Administration.)

President Bush campaigned as a privacy-rights candidate. Yet none of his Administration's proposals have explicit privacy safeguards. In the case of TIA, Americans are asked to take the word of admitted liar Poindexter that their information will be in good hands.